Forum on Impact of Economic Crisis on Women Migrant Workers in Bangkok 23-25 April 2009

Bangkok – As economic crisis takes its toll on the world economy, many jobs are continually being lost.  Within the region, the open economies of East and Southeast Asia are especially vulnerable: this year Singapore’s economy is expected to contract by as much as 8%, Hong Kong and Japan by 6%, Thailand by 5%, and Malaysia by 3%. 

These countries rely heavily on foreign labour, particularly women migrant workers, which women constituting 80% of recent migrant outflows from Indonesia, 60% from the Philippines, 56% from Sri Lanka and 57% from Vietnam. Among migrants, women are expected to be the most heavily affected as the sectors they typically dominate are the ones most adversely impacted, such as electronics assembly in Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), food processing in Thailand, and domestic work in Hong Kong. 

“While we need more systematic research on the gendered impact of the crisis on migrant workers, existing evidence suggests that women’s jobs are among the first to go. Those who do manage to continue are seeing delays and cuts in wages and overtime payment, increasingly hazardous contract and the loss of benefits like subsidized meals and transport. The loss of women’s income has long-term negative implications for poor families in particular because of the stable contribution women make to current household income and their robust expenditure on the well-being and welfare of the children,” said Dr. Jean D’Cunha, Regional Programme Director, UNIFEM East and Southeast Asia Regional Office. 

To fill this important gap, the United Nation’s Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) East and Southeast Asia Regional Office, in cooperation with the International Labour Organization and with support from the European Commission, is organising a “Forum on the Gendered Impact of the Economic Crisis on Asian Migrant Workers” on 23-25 April 2009 in Bangkok.

The Forum will focus on 5 sectors, namely electronics, garments, food processing, tourism, and domestic work and will bring together senior officials from ministries responsible for women affairs and for labour, executives from the identified sectors, trade union officials actively involved in migration issues, non-government organizations, academics, and representatives from international organizations.

The Forum aims to develop recommendations to mitigate the adverse consequence of the crisis on women migrants, as well as generate more solid estimates of the number of women migrant workers laid off or who suffer a deterioration in working conditions as a result of the crisis.

The countries expected to be represented in the forum are Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Media Inquiries:
Supapohn Kanwerayotin, Communications Officer
UNIFEM East and Southeast Asia Regional Office, Bangkok
Supapohn.kanwerayotin[at]unifem.org
02 288 2589; 081 4289897

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